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Wednesday, May 26, 2004

This posting presents a detailed analysis of the Lower Egypt Nomes and their relation to Astronomy on the basis of the Hieroglyphs. Since Old Kingdom sources - as reflected in Hannig's Egyptian Dictionary I (ED1) - do not contain all of the Nomes of Lower Egypt, I refer to the Digital Egypt site (in English) and to the Meritneith site (in German) by Nadja Türk-Gothe for a representation of all the Nomes of Egypt, including those not found in Hannig's Dictionary of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period.

Update, June 5, 2004The capital of the 1st lower nome was Memphis. That a gnomon is intended by the nome hieroglyph can be seen from the variant hieroglyph of Memphis as the "king's castle" where the man is clearly holding a gnomon.See Hannig, ED1, p. 1547.

The goddess Hathor at Memphis, the "eye" of Ra (the sun - related to Indo-European, e.g. Latvian Re!, Redz! "sight, light") and goddess of the sky, had the epithet "of the southern sycamore", which might have referred to the stars of Crater below Leo. Crater is marked as a tree on the megaliths of Ancient Britain at Trethevy Quoit.

The Chinese sieu (lunar mansion, moon station) in Hydra called Lieu was seen as a "willow branch" in this part of the heavens, governing the planets and being "worshipped at festivals of the summer solstice as an emblem of immortality". RHA, p. 248.

2. Crater, Hm, something like "front side cut" and perhaps related to the later Arabic Al Hayyah "snake". The shape of the hieroglyph might mark the head of Hydra and that same constellation to its left including Sextans.

Update, June 14The main city in the second lower nome of Egypt was Khem (Greek Letopolis, Arabic Ausim) viz. KhentyKhem. Khem will mark the lucida (brightest star) in Hydra, Alphard, at the neck of the water serpent, known as Suhel al Fard in Arabic but also as Suhel al Sham (RHA p. 249)- Sham (Ausim) will be Khem.

The hieroglyph used for this nome, according to Hannig, marks the innards, which in Latvian are the word ikris and this corresponds to the 7th Vedic nakshatra Acresha at Hydra (RHA p. 248).

Hence, the first lower nome marks the Summer Solstice and the second lower nome marks the front of Hydra from head to Crater.

3. Corvus, jmntt, the Raven, read as the "West nome" by mainstream Egyptology.

Update, June 14

Corvus is known as the Raven in ancient astronomy and the Pharaonic hieroglyph is indeed a bird.

The main city in the 3rd lower nome of Egypt was Imu (Arabic Kom el-Hisn)and its deity was noted as Hepy of Hut-Ihyt. These terms correspond to the early Arabic titles for Crater, with Imu = (?) Al Ajmal "the Camel" and Hepy = Al Hiba "the Tent". Corvus was known as Emansor (=Imu?) in early days (RHA p. 181). The Arabic name Kom el-Hisn for the main city Imu indicates a possible relation to the 11th Vedic nakshatra, Hasta (=Hisn?), marking the star Algorab. The Chinese 11th sieu - a lunar mansion - is similarly named as Kusam. (Yes, we think the systems are related in origin).

4. Spica in Virgo, nt, read by Egyptologists as "Southern shield", it is also possible that this is a reference to Centaurus and/or the Southern Cross, Crux, below Virgo. Centaurus was pictured with a shield in later eras. See Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, p. 151.

Update, June 16

Nomes 4 and 5 of Lower Egypt are the southern and northern parts of the "province" of Neit, divided after the Old Kingdom, and this large size makes it look as if Centaurus is intended rather than Spica and Virgo, Virgo being almost directly on the ecliptic, although the Arabic name for Virgo, Al Adhra al Nathifah (the innocent - or pure - maiden), may through Nath-ifah have given the name Neith to these two nomes, assigned to it by the Egyptologists.

The main city in Nome 4 is Tanta, which might be a variant of Kenta-urus, but this is speculation as there is no other evidence to support this conclusion as yet.

The idea of a "Southern Shield" has its comparable in Chinese astronomy where Nan Mun marked the lucida of the Centaur and was called the "South Gate".

RHA writes that alpha-Centauri was known as Serk-t in Egypt, but this seems not to explain the Sobek applied to it on the White Chapel (see Digital Egypt).

5. V-stars of Centaurus, Nt, "Northern shield", the stars which at theta-Centauri (Menkent) form the shape of a flower above the centaur.

Update, June 17

The major city of Nome 5 (and perhaps also 4) was Sau (Zau), in Greek Sais and in Arabic Sa al-Hagar. Zau and Hagar might be remnants of the names Wazn and Hadar, "Ground and Weight" applied to the stars alpha and beta-Centauri.

6. V of Horns of Lupus, H3sww, "mountain bull".

Update, June 4, 2004:This is the area of sky where the stars of Lupus (Indo-European, e.g. Latvian lops, lopis (luopis) "animal, beast, cattle, livestock") and Centaurus meet. The Centaur was the ancient Minoan bull, the Minotaur, and also "on the Euphrates it was considered a complete Bull", see Richard Hinckley Allen (RHA), Star Names, pp. 150-151 (Lupus made up the head and horns). The capital city of the sixth lower nome is Buto [Buto (de)] (Tell el-Fara'in viz. Farain), also called Uto, Edjo, Wadjet (Per-Wadjet) or Wadjit - cobra goddess of ancient Egypt twined around a papyrus stem. See Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Buto". As RHA points out, the area of connection of Lupus and Centaurus was known to the Arabs as Al Kadb al Karm, "the Vine Branch", i.e. the twine around a papyrus stem. RHA notes that this stellar area was also called Al Wazn "weight" in Arabic, surely related to the "ground and weight" (Hadar and Wazn) of ancient stars in this region, showing these to be stars arranged in the form of the net of the fisherman at Lupus and Centaurus according to my decipherment of the megaliths of Scotland, the net explaining the use of "ground and weight", as used in net construction. These are Pe and Dep, the semi-mythical Predynastic capitals of Lower Egypt at Buto, which we now can see marked the stars above and below the ecliptic. The Pyramid Texts state that Pe marks kings of "Lower Egypt" whereas Dep marks the serpent.The use of the serpent rather than the bull came from using Serpens Caput above the ecliptic rather than Lupus and Centaur below it. The Muu dancers show Dep as wearing a crown (above the ecliptic) and Pe as wearing none. DEP will be Indo-European, e.g. Latvian DEB-ess "heaven". We now know from the above analysis that not only the nomes but also the capital city of each nome were hermetic, with the capital astronomically marking the lucida - the brightest star in each stellar region.This area of the heavens marked the Autumn Equinox in ca. 3000 BC, where the ecliptic and the celestial equator met. Buto has three mounds, but I do not know their shape, by which one should be able determine the astronomical location in the stars exactly in the predynastic megalithic period. Perhaps these oldest mounds marked the three front prominent stars of Scorpio, as at other megalithic sites.

10. Corona Australis - Sagittarius, Km-wr, "Kem-wer", "black bull". The bull or ox is assigned to the area of Sagittarius and Capricorn in Chinese astronomy (see Richard Hinckley Allen, p. 139) and the area of Capricorn was known as Mriga, Makara viz. Makra "antelope, goat."

11. Start of Capricorn, Hsbw, "Hesbu", "counting of the bulls".

12. End of Capricorn, Tb-ntrt, "calf and cow". This marks the Winter Solstice at Algedi.

13. Aquarius. Hannig writes J3btj, "Jabet".

14. Front of Cetus - Diphda, Hntj-j3btj, "front Eastern nome".

15. Achernar - Phoenix, Dhwtj, "Djehuti".

16. Menkar in Cetus, H3t-mhjt, "First of the Fish"

17. Taurus - Aldebaran, Zm³-bhdt, "united Behedet". The united element refers to the crossing of the ecliptic and the celestial equator.

18. Front of Orion, Jmt, "Prince of the South".

19. Back of Orion - Sirius, Jmt-ph, "Prince of the North".

20. Puppis - Sirius, Pr-Spdw, "feather-crowned falcon of Sopdu". Sopdu here will be the same as Sopdet, Sirius, as the feather above Puppis.

21. No Nome - Break in the Milky Way22. No Nome - Break in the Milky Way

Note that the presence of an Arabic term does not mean the hieroglyphs were originally read or pronounced that way for the mentioned astronomical terms, but it does mean that the Egyptologists are using later sources to derive the names of the hieroglpyhs.

Note that the scaffolding in the Nome hieroglyphs (the scaffolding has been removed in the graphics used here) marks something high up, i.e. the heavens. The hieroglyphs which define the stellar area described are then found inscribed on top of this scaffolding. We have such a scaffold pedestal on the Narmer Palette, for example, marking the Vernal Equinox in the figure of Anubis (my discovery).

This posting presents a detailed analysis of the Upper Egypt Nomes and their relation to Astronomy on the basis of the Hieroglyphs.

Nomes of UPPER EGYPT and their HIEROGLYPHS Explained

1. Chort / Duhr in Leo - Hannig writes T3-stjTaseti. In Arabic, the star Duhr is called Thahr Asad (according to Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Dover, New York, 1963, p. 260). Thahr Asad perhaps = Taseti. The hieroglyph - based on new readings of the hieroglyphs which will soon be presented on this blog - actually reads something like ShCh-r-te, i.e. Chort, viz. al H'aratan, which is similar to ancient Indo-European, e.g. Latvian Shchirt or Shchirtinja, (normally spelled with diacritical markings) meaning "divide, separation" - here marking the Summer Solstice, in 2430 BC, on a line passing from the North Ecliptic Pole, through the North Celestial Pole, through Mizar to the star Chort in Leo.

2. Canes Venatici - Hannig writes Wts-Hr "Wetjes-Hor" - Hor could be Chara, now one of the hounds of Canes Venatici.

3. Coma Berenices - Hannig writes Nhn "Nechen" (compare Arabic Nakkar for Boötes). The ancients seem to have known (had observed) that the North Galactic Pole was located in Coma Berenices, since they gave this otherwise unimportant constellation a great deal of attention. Essentially, Coma Berenices is ca. half way between the center of the galaxy at Sagitarrius and the break in the Milky Way at Vela on the opposite side. See e.g. the entry Galactic Latitude for a discussion of this matter online.

As Hannig writes, Hn-nhn "Chen-nechen" were the first seven nomes of upper Egypt, thus - according to our analysis - covering the time of year from the Summer Solstice to the Autumn Equinox. This hieroglyph is actually correctly read "Janini", the Indo-European, e.g. the Latvian term for "Midsummer". From this, we suspect that the correct reading of the other half of this hieroglyph (the hieroglyph of the Crown of the East, i3by) will have a value of spar- (wings), together with -nin giving thus the value of sparninsh "diminutive, wing(ed)", viz. "feathered" in Indo-European, e.g. Latvian. The Crown of the East signals the Autumn Equinox. See Upper Egypt nome 18 below for the Crown of the West on the opposite side of the heavens.

4. This is a Line marked by the end of the Handle of Ursa Major (the Big Dipper). Hannig writes W3st "Waset" which in Arabic means "middle" and indeed, the end "handle stars" of Ursa Major are very close to and mark the line to the North Celestial Pole - the Middle - in this era.

5. Boötes. Hannig writes Ntrwj "Netjerui". Richard Hinckley Allen writes at page 100 about Boötes:"In India it was the 13th nakshatra, Svati ... perhaps Sword ... and known there also as Nishtya, Outcast ...."Hence, Netjerui may be Nishtya, or Arabic Nakkar or Nekkar for Boötes. Possible is also that this marks the two small stars together in the vast starless expanse of Boötes, i.e. rho and sigma, known as Nadhlat in Arabic = Netjerui ?

6. Libra. Hannig writes Jqr "Iqer". The reason that they took a lizard here is that Libra is barely above the ecliptic, and it was known as Juga or Juka "weigh beam" in Sanskrit.

14. Back of Pegasus. Hannig writes Ndft phtt "Back Nedjfit". The hieroglyphs for "back" are written out at the 21st Nome of Upper Egypt and clearly read aste meaning "tail" in Indo-European, e.g. Latvian, although the general reading in Egyptology for this sign is phwj meaning "behind, after" which is the Indo-European, e.g. Latvian term pēc, pēcuo, pēcuot "behind, after, last, following". We find the similar voiced forms as Indo-European, e.g. Latvian beidz, "finish" and beidzuot "finally".

15. Cassiopeia. Hannig writes Snt "Unet". A hare is used as the symbol in the hieroglyph. In Latvian a vainags is a crown and the ears of the hare were seen as the crown on its head for which it was named. Cassiopeia is the crown in the astronomical context.

16. Camelopardalis Perseus. Hannig writes M3-hd "Ma-hedj". Since Perseus and Camelopardalis reach up to great heights in the sky, they are generally portrayed in astronomical systems with some kind of a high-reaching symbol, here apparently a mountain goat - in modern times a figure applied to neighboring Auriga.

17. Auriga. Anubis is shown as a dog with the hieroglyph of the Crown of the West (currently transcribed as wnmy) above him. The Crown of the West signals the Vernal Equinox.

18. Crossing Ecliptic : Celestial Equator. Hannig writes Pr-Nmtj "Nemti" where the older reading was c-ntj. In Latvian parnemti means "to take over, switch over". The Vernal Equinox takes place where the ecliptic and celestial equator meet, marked here by a bird with extremely long legs - rooted to the ground - but with wings open ready to fly, showing the separation of the celestial equator and ecliptic at this point.

19. Gemini. Hannig writes *W3bwj "Wabui". This is Latvian abie "both" and marks the two twins of Gemini, both explicitly marked as two staffs on the hieroglyph.

20. Front of the Cup of Ursa Major. Hannig writes N-c-rt hntt "front Noret". The name Noret is similar to the Latvian term "neriet" meaning stars that never set, i.e. circumpolar stars.

However - perhaps or perhaps not related here - as we shall see in future postings, the hieroglyph read in Egyptology as NTR is correctly read NRT and this has its root in the basic word Nahr, as in the Akkadian (Nahru), Hebrew (Nehar di Nur) and Arabic (Al Nahr), all terms for the Milky Way, the River of Heaven, i.e. the Sky of Stars. Narit- viz. Naritis would be diminutive forms, whence N viz. NR viz. NRT as the correct readings for the hieroglyph now read incorrectly as NTR.

We know that the hieroglyph NRT applied to the heavens because it is sometimes alternated in writing with the scaffolding hieroglyph - as a symbol of the heavens - upon which the signs of the Nomes were placed.

Nahr- is also the root origin of the name of NAR-MER, properly read as "ruler, on earth, under heaven" (where MER = Egypt"), a common epithet still documented by the Guanche or Canariopeoples on the Canary Islands (Ca-NAR).

21. Back of the Cup of Ursa Major - Hannig writes N-c-rt pht "back Noret". Correct for "back" seems to be the reading aste "tail", i.e. back in this sense - see 14 above for an explanation of the term pēc which leads to the mainstream reading pht, here incorrect.

22. The Knife of Leo Minor. Hannig writes Mdnjt "Medenit" but the correct transcription of part of the hieroglyph reads l-t-sha which is Arabic Laduha for this constellation. The Indo-European, e.g. Latvian term for Mdnjt is Medniet- which means "of the hunter" so this is a hunter's knife.

This posting presents a graphic of the Ancient Pharaonic Egyptian hieroglyphs for the Nomes of Ancient Egypt.

These hieroglyphs can now be compared with the textual materials. A comprehensive and detailed explanation of the individual Nomes and the stars and star groups (asterisms or constellations) attributable to each is forthcoming.

For Lower Egypt, we have found only the nomes 3 and 6-16 documented in that same dictionary of oldest sources although 38 Nomes are allegedly known for the Old Kingdom.

42 Nomes of Egypt are Geodetic Regions by Astronomy

As discovered by Andis Kaulins, the total number of 42 Nomes of Egypt - i.e. the 22 Upper Egypt Nomes and the 20 Lower Egypt Nomes - were organized according to the hermetic principle, "As Above, So Below". The ancients used the stars to map the Earth and Ancient Egypt by astronomy, and this mapping (geodetic survey) is visible in the hieroglyphs used as symbols to identify and mark the Egyptian Nomes.

The 42 Temples of Sumer and 42 Megaliths of Arbor Low

The ancient Sumerian Temple Hymns relate to 42 Temples, and we have discovered that these temples are a comparable geodetic survey by astronomy of ancient Sumer which we are in the process of deciphering.

At Arbor Low in Ancient Britain we find an astronomical site with 42 megaliths - which we have deciphered.

The Hieroglyphs for Nome and "Star Group" are Virtually the Same in Transcription

The hieroglyph for NOME in Egyptian [English "province", German Gaue] is transcribed by the Egyptologists assp3twhich is nearly the same as the transcription ofsb3t given by them to the hieroglyph meaning"STAR, star group, stellar constellation, asterism" (Hannig, ED1, p. 1095-1096) and transliterated erroneously by those Egyptologists as the term sepat.

The Hieroglyphs are Indo-European in Origin

Actually, Pharaonic sb3t is related to the terms SPID and SPIDET in Indo-European, which are the Latvian terms for "shines" and "to shine", and to the Indo-European, e.g. Latvian terms ZIB, ZIBET meaning "to flash, to glitter". That is why the Egyptian hieroglyph for Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, also reads spdt, which is not at all the artificial word sopdet claimed by the mainstream Egyptologists, but rather this is correctly SPIDET, i.e. "shining star".

The Nomes of Upper Egypt represent stars above the ecliptic (the path of the Sun, RA)whereas the Nomes of Lower Egypt (Nile Delta) represent the stars below that same ecliptic. The Moon and planets also move along the general path of the ecliptic, though not directly on it.

In this posting we first show only the Nomes and their comparable Stellar Regions.We will go into detailed textual and graphic analysis in subsequent posts.

Upper Nomes and Their Stars

THE NOMES OF UPPER EGYPT (= ABOVE the Ecliptic)and their HERMETICALLY COMPARABLE STARS(as shown in the hieroglyphs themselves)

The word NOME was taken from the Greek term Nomos "district" and is found e.g. in Indo-European e.g. Latvian Nams meaning "large building, house, hall", whence also the related ending -onomy meaning "management" viz. "measurement".

The Nome numbering used here at the Ancient Egypt Blog Cheops is the same as is found on the map at page 6 of Shaw and Nicholson's British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (which nevertheless reflects some grievous errors by the mainstream Egyptologists in the placement of the Nomes of Lower Egypt, e.g. Nr. 8).

Nome Identification in terms of Astronomy

The identification of each nome with a particular area of the heavens - as shown above - is solely the discovery of Andis Kaulins. The Egyptologists generally know nothing of astronomy and that is why they have not made this discovery themselves.